Newslinks for Tuesday 19th January 2016

‘Announcing a series of moves designed to prevent children from being turned into fanatics, Mrs Morgan attacks groups like Cage which ‘indoctrinate, instruct and inspire hate’ and try to ‘close and narrow young minds’. Cage, which infamously referred to Jihadi John as a ‘beautiful young man’, was exposed by the Mail earlier this month for targeting Muslims during at least 13 student events. It also attempted to use a primary school to host an event involving extremist speakers.’ – Daily Mail

Radicalisation 2) Cameron criticised for cuts to English language lessons

‘David Cameron was accused of hypocrisy over his demand that Muslim women improve their language skills after it emerged that he cut funding for English lessons for migrants in 2011. His anti-extremism blueprint came under fire yesterday after he announced a £20 million language fund to help about 190,000 Muslim women in England who speak little or no English. They now face language tests after two and a half years if they wish to stay.’ – The Times (£)

Might Osborne kill off pensions?

‘The drumbeat in Whitehall is that Mr Osborne is planning to scrap the tax breaks given to middle-class savers when they put money into a pension. The government top-ups that reward prudence and self- reliance would be radically cut. Savings incentives for those ‘strivers’ the politicians are always banging on about would vanish in an instant. It is a move that would easily trump the damage done by Gordon Brown’s infamous raid on dividend tax credits in 1997.’ – James Coney, Daily Mail

Pro-EU campaign accused of ‘fear and falsehoods’

‘A pro-EU leaflet to be delivered to millions of households this week is riddled with errors, Eurosceptics claimed last night…Matthew Elliott, chief executive of Vote Leave, said: ‘The Britain Stronger In Europe campaign are basing their leaflets on fear and falsehoods. There is big money and unlimited assistance from the European Commission behind the campaign to stay in the EU at all costs, but the public will see through baseless scaremongering and recognise that voting to leave is the safer option.” – Daily Mail

Cameron increases pressure on the Met over Bramall fiasco

‘David Cameron heaped pressure on the Met by insisting they offer Lord Bramall “some comfort”. The PM yesterday stopped short of demanding Commissioner Sir Bernard Hogan-Howe say sorry publicly. But he made it clear the bungling Operation Midland team must make amends for the needless suffering inflicted. Mr Cameron called the 92-year-old D-Day hero — the victim of unfounded child abuse claims — “a wonderful man with a great record of serving our country”.’ – The Sun (£)

Army sniper investigated for not warning grenade thrower before firing

‘A British sniper is being probed for killing an Iraqi who was about to fire a grenade — because he did not shout a warning. The insurgent was shot attacking a UK base. But as the witch-hunt into heroes who served their country continues, the soldier’s actions are being investigated by the Iraq Historic Allegations Team (IHAT). His account was revealed by pressure group UK Veterans One Voice.’ – The Sun (£)

The NHS lags behind in the drive to reduce stillbirths

‘Britain trails the world in improving its stillbirth rate, and fatalism about baby deaths is still widespread among health professionals, a major global study has found. Progress on reducing stillbirths is slower than in Zambia and the Democratic Republic of Congo. Britain’s annual improvement rate is 1.4 per cent. In the Netherlands, where progress has been fastest, there has been an average annual reduction of 6.8 per cent.’ – The Times (£)

‘Schools still have to mend the ‘lingering damage’ caused by the ‘wholesale dumbing down of standards’ under previous Labour governments, the head of Ofsted has warned. Sir Michael Wilshaw claimed that ‘botched reforms’ of the education system during the 1960s and 1970s continue to plague schools today, despite efforts by the Tories to toughen up standards. He said that while he would not be calling for the widespread return of grammar schools, he thought the comprehensive schooling system still has its problems.’ – Daily Mail

MPs’ anger about Corbyn’s Trident line

‘Speaking in the Commons, former Shadow Defence Minister Kevan Jones blasted the idea as “ill informed”. And he stormed: “You can’t turn a nuclear deterrent on and off like a tap.” Jamie Reed, who resigned his Shadow Health post after Jeremy Corbyn won the leadership, said it was madness to make nuclear disarmament a signature policy issue. On Twitter, he blasted: “To recap, unilateralism will: Not achieve its objective, harm the UK, split the party, is irrelevant given the time window and ensure defeat.”’ – The Sun (£)

Momentum founder threatened with deselection by his own activists

‘A split is said to have erupted at the top of Momentum — the grassroots network of Jeremy Corbyn supporters — between Jon Lansman, its hard-left founder, and younger organisers. In recent weeks a growing power struggle has emerged between Mr Lansman, who has campaigned for the mandatory reselection of Labour MPs, and the group’s three other principal organisers. A Labour source said that there was disunity in Momentum over its relationship with the party and how closely it should seek to align with it.’ – The Times (£)

Foreign Office urges Downing Street not to be tough on Russia – The Guardian

Pollsters conclude they didn’t talk to enough Tories

‘The long-awaited postmortem into what wrong with the opinion polls in last year’s general election is published on Tuesday, and it points the finger at the pollsters’ failure to reach enough Conservative voters. Patrick Sturgis, a professor of research methodology at Southampton University, who has headed a team of nine experts undertaking an independent review for the British Polling Council, said that “the emerging upshot is that the companies are going to have to be more imaginative and proactive in making contact with – and giving additional weight to – those sorts of respondents that they failed to reach in adequate numbers in 2015.”’ – The Guardian

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